#WritersLife: Writing a New Poetry Collection While Editing the Other New Collection

 

Welcome to #WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life. 

I'm deep in the editing trenches for Poetry #3 while I await the return of the professionally edited manuscript from my critique partner. I'm trying to focus on the other areas while I wait, like I mentioned in the previous post, including the metadata, the promos, and ARC set-up, but lately my creative muse has blossomed and is diving head first into Poetry #4.

I debated entering pieces into anthologies, and I probably will still do that to help gain more exposure, but this new collection has me in a choke hold. I think it's a combination of reading Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan and listening to The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology by Taylor Swift that has shoved me into the writing and daydreaming that is making up this new collection. 

I'm focusing much more on poetic styles for this collection, which I'm trying to not let heavily affect the voice for Poetry #3. I love the rawness of #3 and want to maintain that, but for #4, I'm moving into more of my favorite poetic devices, namely alliteration, slant rhymes/true rhymes, and a repetitive structure that's reminiscent of songwriting. 

I grew up on country music, and its storytelling is one I want to emulate in my poetry, whether that's with the attention to detail or repetitive lines. The five senses play an even stronger role in both of these collections whereas my first two collections, The Ones and Missed Arrows, honed in on emotions, relationships, and overall more intangible imagery. I want the readers to taste the scenes in these new manuscripts and feel the zing on their tongues and abhor the pungency in their nostrils. 

I have a working title I love, but it's still early (we're nearly a year from when I would release #4). Poetry #3 changed titles after having a title picked out for 8 months, and I still can't believe it changed because that title was so near and dear to my heart. However, the official title alludes to more of the overarching themes and will be a stronger title for marketing purposes (writing is a craft, but publishing is a business after all). I get goosebumps rereading some of these pieces and they haven't even been edited by me yet, let alone seen by my CP or beta readers. 

I wonder if this is how Taylor feels working on music: she knows her latest writing is her best because she's perfecting her craft, but her listeners are on two albums back and she can't share it with them. I feel that way with my poetry. I want to show off these new poems, but I still have a whole collection that hasn't been released. It's also a strong testament to never work on one project at once. As soon as you send a manuscript off to a CP, editor, or beta reader, start outlining or drafting your next project. 

I can't wait to share #3 with everyone, and we have less than three months until its release! Official title, cover reveal, and blurb is coming in July, so stay tuned here, on Instagram, and on YouTube.

Happy writing!

#WritersLife: New Poetry Updates May 2024

 

#WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life. 

I'm so excited with the progress I've made on my latest poetry collection! It came back from the editor at the end of April, I spent time on the copy edit suggestions, tweaked minor lines and sections, and sent it off to my critique partner. 

Today I finalized the meta data, including the blurb, categories, and tags for KDP, D2D, and IngramSpark. I also want to upload to Kobo directly this time so my ebook can be included in the Kobo Plus program (I have a video going up soon on my three months experience as an author on Kindle Unlimited). The cover was finalized a little while ago, and it's killing me to not share it yet!

I finalized the ARC sign-up form which I hope will be going live in July, and I'm thinking of having blog subscribers or YouTube subscribers as my first-come, first-serve group if anyone is interested. Money is a little tighter than last release, so I want to minimize just how much money I give to Meta while I search for ARC readers (I used a boosted ad last time, which found me 24 readers and of whom 8 left reviews). 

This is a hard collection. It focuses on my familial relationships, how they shaped me, and how they continue to affect me even after their deaths. For those who read my debut collection, The Ones, you may have picked up on some allusions to the theme of this new collection, but it's something I haven't dived into in years because I had accepted it as a part of my life. 

For anyone facing hardship in the terms of illness, abuse, neglect, or anything outside of their immediate control, this is the collection for you. It will probably make you cry in more emotions than one because I did from start to finish crafting these pieces. 

I still need to draft the scripts for my YouTube videos for this Friday and next, but I'm debating skipping next Friday because I need a bit of a breather. I took a week off for the first week in May, much needed after nonstop client work for editing and beta reading, but now I need time off to finalize the publishing aspects of the new poetry. 

Oh, and book marketing. Can't forget that. 

Happy writing, reading, and life-ing!

#WritersLife: My Publishing Journey from 2021 to 2024

 

Welcome to #WritersLife, where I talk writing in real life.

Well friends, it's been a while.

I started this blog just before I graduated college in 2014, was active for three years, gone for four, briefly touched base, and disappeared again. This time, I'm not as lost as I was in 2021 with my writing and publishing journey.

I don't know what capacity I'd like to use this space just yet, but if nothing else, it will be the written version of my Author Tube series over on YouTube (the OGs will remember that "obsessed with YouTubers" was one of my "About Me" inclusions because really, is there anything more remarkable about me than that?). But firstly, let me dive into a bit of what I've been up to.

2021

This year ended nearly the way it began: still lost and without a shred of writing to add to my experience. I remained lost as to which direction to take or how to jump back into this world. Let's face it, trends are real, and trying to understand the latest trends in YA lit after distancing myself from it for years was far more daunting.

2022

I decided to embrace my new sales position and self-published my first ebook (since unpublished and now no longer available) centered on sleep. I made three sales and was ecstatic, unsure of how this would play out long term but pumped to be working with words again.

That same month I got my first editing client on Fiverr. I started out offering beta reading, copywriting, and job description services (spoiler alert, only one of those gigs is still live). By the end of the year, I made my first $1.05 from self-publishing and my first $52 from freelancing. 

I also dabbled in poetry a bit as well as pieces of stories, the first few poems creating what soon became an 8,000-word poetry manuscript. 

2023

I published my second sleep ebook at the start of the year, doing a week-long pre-order and dabbling with marketing on a new Instagram account created in the same month. I marketed myself as Orange Rose Editorial.

I decided by spring I wanted to publish the poems that had now amassed into a collection that spanned 100 pages. It was also in spring that Fiverr promoted me to the next level of seller, and I curated my services to only involve books: beta reading, copyediting, manuscript critiques, and query letter assistance (all for young adult and middle grade, naturally). 

I made a book cover, had colleagues from college read my story, and self-published my poetry, titled The

Ones, on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), IngramSpark, and Draft2Digital (D2D). I announced it three months before it's release and somehow sold 81 copies by release day. I still don't know how I did that. The sales I made by the end of 2023 covered the publication costs. 

I was promoted to the next tier of seller on Fiverr, and July saw my first 4-figure month from editing services. I also wrote the first draft of my next poetry collection while brainstorming an additional two. For NaNoWriMo, I wrote 23k words of a YA cozy mystery (that has yet to be completed, but I have no intentions of letting it go). 

I met Alexandra Bracken, Patrice Caldwell, Adalyn Grace, and Jessica Olson. 

Lastly, I started posting on YouTube regarding self-publishing, writing, and editing. 

2023 had shaped up to look suspiciously close to what 2017 could have been had I not lost sight of my dream in 2016. 

2024

In February, I self-published my second poetry collection, Missed Arrows, to a whopping 9 readers. I also experienced my first annoying experience with IngramSpark and testing out the waters with Kindle Unlimited. Spoiler alert: I made zero sales in three months and will be publishing the ebook wide. 

March saw my second 4-figure month with editing jobs, and it hasn't slowed since. I'm on track to earn the Top-Rated Seller badge's qualifications before the end of May. 

My third poetry collection is slated for release in August 2024. My YouTube channel just hit 250 subscribers. I've assisted 90+ clients on Fiverr. 

I've faced disappointment this year as well as tremendous glee, and I can't wait to see how the remainder of the year plays out. I'd love to get a website up and running (but this will be my main spot until I figure that confusion out). I want to get better at book marketing and making videos. I want to build my writing community.

I think that's how I'll divide this blog with my YouTube channel. The videos will highlight editing and publishing news while this will only cover my writing journey and thoughts I don't share anywhere else. Of course, I might end up combining the two at some point, but for now, this will revert to being my reading and writing nook.

Thanks for joining me. My last post ended with me wanting to write again, and now I'm publishing every year. Keep on writing, friends.